Digital Technologies Essential to Bridge India’s Skill Gap: Accenture

Accenture study notes that skills such as complex reasoning, creativity, and socio-emotional and sensory perception cannot be taught through traditional teaching and learning

A new report from Accenture outlines an approach to bridging the skills gap that, if not addressed, could result in India forgoing as much as US$1.97 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP) growth promised by investment in intelligent technologies over the next decade.

The report, “Fueling India’s Skill Revolution,” identifies the skills that are rising in importance across most job roles as intelligent technologies transform the nature of work. It notes that skills such as complex reasoning, creativity, and socio-emotional and sensory perception cannot be taught through traditional teaching and learning.

The report includes a framework that combines a suite of innovative learning methods grounded in neuroscience research to make skills development more effective, enabling organizations to reskill their people at scale while providing learning experiences that are more tailored to the individual.

The approach is based on Accenture’s own ‘New Skilling’ framework — which helped more than 160,000 Accenture employees around the world become conversant in the latest IT skills and more than 100,000 to be job-ready in less than two years. The framework supports the four stages of an individual’s learning journey, which can be augmented by a combination of digital technologies:

Awareness: Digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) can help with content curation and dissemination to ensure that students are aware of the skills they need.

Job-ready: Augmented and virtual-reality technologies can enable immersive training to make people job-ready.

Expert: Blockchain-based micro-credentials can help individuals stay on the path to lifelong learning and build deeper expertise.

“Intelligent technologies increasingly require people to hone more exclusively human skills such as creativity, empathy and ethical judgment,” said Rekha M Menon, chairman and senior managing director at Accenture in India. “These skills cannot be acquired in the classroom. We must offer more experiential on-the-job training and help people adopt life-long learning as their jobs are transformed. Digital tools and applications — like artificial intelligence, analytics and blockchain — will be essential in delivering these new learning approaches.”

The report also recommends four actions that stakeholders in India — including government departments, industry bodies, academia, non-profit organizations and corporates — need to initiate to ensure that the country’s workforce has the skills needed for the digital economy.

Unify a fragmented ecosystem: Use digital platforms to connect the stakeholder ecosystem so that employers, education providers, start-ups and public agencies can work together to address skills demand, create jobs and tackle other challenges facing job seekers. Analytics could help identify the areas for intervention and recommend appropriate actions; and blockchain could improve the transparency and accountability of the process of awarding skills development grants.

Start at the source: Create a comprehensive skills-based learning path in schools and colleges and adapt curriculum in institutions of higher learning to cater to the broader needs of the digital economy.

Customize to the local context: Build technology solutions that can be applied at scale while being relevant to local needs. Ensure that digital solutions are affordable, device-agnostic, multi-lingual, and compatible with offline infrastructure.

“It’s critical that companies collaborate with the broader ecosystem to bridge the skills gap that is keeping India from harnessing its demographic advantage,” Menon said. “Organizations must recognize that they need to be innovative not just in developing products and services, but also in the way they offer learning opportunities that ensure their communities are ready for the future.”

DQ Live SlideShow

Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia Group welcoming Dr Arvind Gupta, National Head Information Technology, BJP. Dr Gupta was the Chief Guest of the evening

(L-R) Sunil Sharma, VP, Sales, India & Saarc, Cyberoam and Dr Arvind Gupta, National Head IT giving the Dataquest Business Technology Award to Sapient Consulting for the best IT implementation in security, mobility, unified communications, and infrastructure management

Jubilant Lifesciences received the award for best IT implementation in analytics, mobility, cloud, ERP/SCM/CRM

ING Vysya Bank received the award for best IT implementation in mobility and ERP/SCM/CRM, infrastructure management

Escorts received the award for best IT implementation in analytics and security

Amity received the award for best IT implementation in security and unified communications

LV Bank received the award for best IT implementation in unified communications

Biocon received the award for best IT implementation in mobility and unified communications

Happiest Minds received the award for best IT implementation in security and cloud

HCL Infosystems received the award for best IT implementation in cloud and ERP/SCM/CRM

Evalueserve received the award for best IT implementation in security and cloud

Sterlite Technologies received the award for best IT implementation in analytics and cloud

Serco Global received the award for best IT implementation in mobility and cloud

Intellect Design Arena received the award for best IT implementation in cloud and unified communications

Reliance Entertainment received the award for best IT implementation in analytics and cloud

Canon India received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Persistant Systems received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

ILFS received the award for best IT implementation in infrastructure management

eClerx received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Sesa Sterlite received the award for best IT implementation in ERP/SCM/CRM

Hero Moto Corp received the award for best IT implementation in ERP?SCM?CRM

KPIT received the award for best IT implementation in unified communications

JK Tyres received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Idea Cellular received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Godfrey Philips received the award for best IT implementation in infrastructure management

Aviva Life Insurance Co received the award for best IT implementation in infrastructure management

Hindalco received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Aircel received the award for best IT implementation in unified communications

Dr Lal Path Labs received the award for best IT implementation in cloud

Gati received the award for best IT implementation in mobility

Perfetti Van Melle received the award for best IT implementation in cloud

Sheela Foam received the award for best IT implementation in mobility

Tata Communication received the award for best IT implementation in ERP/SCM/CRM

NDTV received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Hindustan Power received the award for best IT implementation in mobility